Tuesday, October 18, 2011

seared 5-lbs beef cap/blade trim in a hot dutch oven containing 2T. olive oil. pulled the browned beef from the pan and set aside. added 1 ½ c. diced yellow onion, 2 ribs diced celery, 4 berries of all-spice, 2 cloves, 5 sprigs thyme, 1t. korean chili powder, 1/2t. old bay, 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper to the hot pan. cooked until the onions were transparent, then added 1 1/2c. white wine and 2T. tomato sauce, and reduced. mixed about 26oz. of beef stock into the ingredients in the dutch oven, then placed the beef into the liquid, covered and let simmer for 3.5-hrs. let rest in the braising liquid over night. reheated the liquid and beef in a 300-degree oven until warm. strained and separated the fat from the the braising juice, and set aside, discarding all of the aromatics and herbs. pulled the beef into strands. whipped the beef strands in a stand mixer using a paddle, along with 1/2oz. gin, 9 dashes of fee brothers orange bitters, 3/4c. of the separated beef fat, 3/4c. of braising liquid, 5 cloves of olive oil poached garlic paste, 7 sprigs of chopped thyme, 1/2t. cayenne pepper, 1oz. apple cider vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste (over-seasoning slightly). pressed the fluffy and emulsified whipped rillette into bread pans, using a soft spatula to push out the air bubbles, then capped with some of the remaining beef fat. refrigerated for a week or two, then sliced and seared in a non-stick pan (probably the only reason to keep a pan like this around). served with slices of a fresh baguette, some whole-grain mustard, and homemade pickles. also, made some mean egg sandwiches with the seared rillette, cheddar, pickles, tomato, and mayonnaise.

Friday, September 9, 2011

mixed 3/4c. buttermilk, 2T. light cream, and 1 egg into 1-1/4c. cornmeal, 1/2c. all-purpose flour, 2T. sugar, 1t. salt, and 1t. baking soda. let stand for 10-min or so. poked some linguica sausage links (gaspar’s linguica franks) with bamboo skewers (cut down to fit into the sauce pan containing the hot oil). patted the links dry (the batter sticks better) then dipped/rolled in the batter until lightly coated, then fried one at a time in a sauce pan with 350-degree vegetable oil, until brown. held in a 200-degree oven until all of the corndogs were done.

plated with some mayonnaise whipped with smooth spicy brown mustard and poached garlic paste - to taste. these were so good. not even funny. so easy. so good. hello, fat/death.

whipped together a few cloves of crushed olive oil poached garlic, some garlic oil, a little bit of tomato sauce, and an egg (since this stromboli does not have a gooey binder cheese, like mozzarella, the egg was added to hold things together and absorb extra moisture during cooking).

rolled out some plain pizza dough into a large rectangular sheet (about ¼-in thick), then brushed the garlic-tomato-egg mixture over the entire surface. covered the dough with pre-cooked bacon (had been baked and then chilled), crumbled gorgonzola cheese, golden raisins, baby spinach and salt and pepper. rolled up from one side and tucked the dough from the ends underneath, to seal everything in. covered a pizza peel with cornmeal and transferred the rolled dough to it. slid the dough onto a 400-degree baking stone in the oven until brown on top, then let rest for about 8 minutes and then sliced and served.

soaked some tortilla chips in water until soft, then drained the water off. mixed two beaten eggs into some chopped up leftover bone marrow burger and baked beans, 4 cloves of poached garlic made into paste, a few dashes of tobasco sauce, salt and pepper. folded the egg and leftover mixture into the drained tortilla chips and let stand for about fifteen minutes. carefully slid the chips and shit into a hot skillet with some olive oil and butter. cooked until the bottom was brown and then started flipping over portions of the mixture until crisp and brown (trying not to break up all of the layers). plated with some “salsa” which was a salad from the day before containing: hominy, cucumber, purple bell peppers, heirloom tomatoes, onion, garlic, apple cider vinegar, cumin, salt and pepper.

used frying oil sitting in a pot on the stove is always bad news - it makes people eat mini-donuts for breakfast. grabbed the cake donut recipe from the joy of cooking, added some fresh vanilla bean, shaped, deep fried and then sprinkled with powdered sugar. breakfast.

sauteed one sliced shallot with 1 clove of garlic in 1t. of olive oil in a hot pan. cooked until tender, then added salt, pepper, 1c. chicken stock, 1T. madras curry powder, and 1t. fresh chopped thyme. added a head of thin sliced red cabbage. stirred in 2T. of butter and 2/3c. golden raisins when the liquid was almost gone, then cooked on low heat until adequately stewed (liquid gone, bound with butter, etc.).

squeezed the juice from two limes into a small sauce pan containing 3T. granulated sugar, 1t. korean chili flakes, a dash or worcestershire sauce, a dash of ground anise, a dash of ground nutmeg, and a pinch of salt. simmered over low heat until a syrupy consistency that would cling to the back of a spoon.

brushed the lime-chili syrup over the entire outer surface of two ½-lb strips of big eye tuna.

allowed a few minutes for the new Napoleon Grills Prestige II Freestyle Portable Infrared Grill from CSGrills.com to heat up, then wiped the grates down with a little olive oil, and placed a chili coated side of the fish onto the hot grill. counted to 30-second cooking each side of the tuna, using a fish spatula to gently remove the fish from the grates of the grill and move to the next side, until all sides were seared. pulled the fish from the grill, applied a little more sauce to the outside, and sliced into ¼-in thick pieces. plated over some plain jasmine rice and the curry cabbage.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

cut a 1-lb chunk of grass-fed beef short rib (fresh off the moo from verrill farm in concord, ma) into two rib sections, each with a bone. braised the short rib parts in some well-seasoned braising liquid that had been previously used for beef oxtail once and beef short ribs once before (strained through a fine sieve after each use). simmered the beef in the braising liquid for about three hours over low heat. let cool a little and packaged in some liquid and let sit over night in the refrigerator. broke through the beefy fat cap the next day and pulled out the short ribs, discarded the solid pieces of beefy fat, and set aside the remaining stock. pulled the bones out of the short ribs, being careful to preserve the delicious cartilage surrounding the bone, and sliced all of the meat into quarter-inch thick slices. placed in a covered bowl and gently reheated the meat in the oven while the rest of the meal cooked.

thinly sliced half of a large onion into rainbows, and caramelized with a little olive oil in a deep sauce pan. added some cloves of olive oil poached garlic and some of the garlic olive oil, and the finely sliced tips from two applewood smoked serrano peppers. added 1-qt of the beefy braising liquid, about 1-1/2c. of water, a dash of soy sauce, 1t. white miso paste, and salt and pepper to taste. brought to a near boil, then added two blocks of curly ramen noodles. cooked until noodles were tender, then plated the broth and noodles in some wide rim pasta bowls with some of the warm sliced short rib meat over top, a little fresh basil and salt sprinkled over the beef, and a side of christine’s famous vegan kimchee.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

i’m going to break format here for a minute...ahem...in the past three years that i have been generating one-hundred percent original content for this blog, i have received many emails from companies, blogs and websites requesting for me to add links, plug products, join webrings, etcetera. recently, i found myself in a bit of a lull, having been focused a little more on design and work than this blog, which i mainly keep just as a personal log of my foods. i feared that the site would just disappear from my interests, and i even started saying that “i used to have a food blog.” a few weeks ago i received an email from a company that sounded pretty cool. since i was/am interested in the products and technology that they distribute, i got on the phone and called them up and proposed an offer for a collaboration. i am excited to announce that i have some new technology on the way to me from my friends over at www.csgrills.com. this limited partnership is of my creation and on my terms, so you can expect to see the same style and quality of content that i have been posting for the last few years. i just wanted to put it out there, so that everyone knows what is going on when i tell you about the new technology that i am going to present on lick my balsamic in the upcoming weeks.

made some fishy-spicy-simple syrup by mixing a 1:1 ratio of sugar and hot water (about 1/2c. worth) with a splash of stinky fish sauce, the juice from half of a lemon, 1t. chili paste, a pinch of dry korean chili flakes, a dash of paprika, about 1T. of soy sauce, a little salt, and some straight vinegar - until the bite was right. the sauce was nice and loose and had just a hint of that nauseating bottled fish sauce flavor that adds an unmistakable depth. shaved some long strands of peeled carrot into the mixture and let chill in the refrigerator.peeled and de-veined a handful of large shrimp, butterflied them down the back and patted them dry with some paper towels. tossed the shrimp in a mixture of about 4T. molasses, 2T. soy sauce, 1T. white miso paste, a few squirts of worcestershire sauce, a little unfiltered apple cider vinegar, and a pinch of old bay seasoning.made some gooey rice with a little bit of sugar and some unfiltered apple cider vinegar. let cool for a few minutes. formed a couple of rice patties on some parchment paper, then transferred the patties to a sautee pan filled with about a quarter of an inch of hot olive oil. fried the rice patties until crisp and brown on each side (not easy - never doing this again without a binder, like egg).grilled the marinated shrimp over very high heat on a grill, turning regularly, until colored, cooked, and crispy. put some spinach down in a wide-rimmed bowl, topped with a rice cake, and a few grilled shrimp, then poured the fishy simple syrup over the top of everything and garnished with some of the dressed carrots from the sauce.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

coarsely ground 1-lb of beef sirloin with 1-lb chuck. double-ground half of the total batch, then lightly hand mixed with a healthy amount of salt and pepper, 1t. olive oil, 1t. soy sauce, and 1t. white vinegar. formed into 1/3 to 1/2-lb balls/patties (that's right) depressing the top middle of each burger form (to avoid having a meatball instead of a burger, and for even cooking). let the grill heat up for about 30-min, then cooked the burgers for about 3-min per side, placing the sliced gruyere onto the burgers for the last two minutes of cooking. sliced and lightly fried the cut faces of some portuguese sweet rolls in butter until golden brown. slathered some mayonnaise on the rolls with a little ketchup and some dressed greens (olive oil, cider vinegar, salt and pepper). threw some meat on the rolls - burger magic.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

mixed together 1c. of all-purpose flour with a few spoonfuls of whole milk yogurt, a pinch of salt, and a handful of fresh chopped parsley. the dough was very wet, but workable (no idea how much yogurt was actually in there, could have been almost 1:1). cut the dough into two equal sized pieces and rolled it into oblong pitas on a floured work surface. placed the rolled out dough onto a pizza peel and transferred to a hot baking stone in a 425-degree oven until brown, then flipped and repeated.

rotated a raw eggplant atop a stove burner on high heat until the outside was charred and the flesh was tender to the touch. sliced the eggplant in half, put one half on each plate, and splayed the halved eggplant like a baked potato. smeared some garlic paste (garlic, olive oil, salt, and a little lemon juice, worked together into an emulsion in a mortar and pestle) onto the open flesh side of the eggplant, then drizzled on some tahini, honey, extra virgin olive oil, and lemon juice. topped the eggplant off with some diced tomatoes, parsley, thyme, salt, pepper, and a dollop of whole milk yogurt. served with the pita.

sliced a fennel bulb in half and sprinkled some salt and pepper onto the cut sides. put the two sides back together, wrapped the bulb in aluminum foil, and placed in the back of a 375-degree oven for about 40-minutes (or until fork tender).

washed and quartered five small red potatoes. tossed the potatoes in some olive oil, salt and pepper, and placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet on the bottom rack of the 375-degree oven until brown, then turned and baked until fork tender. mashed the potatoes with 1.5T. butter, 1 clove of crushed garlic, 2-3T. heavy cream, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. whipped with a spatula until smooth.

brought a 1-lb beef chuck "london broil" shoulder steak up to room temperature and sprinkled both sides with salt and pepper. heated a 10-in skillet with a little olive oil over high heat until almost smoking. placed the chuck steak into the hot skillet and cooked for about three minutes, then flipped the steak and put the skillet into the 375-degree oven for another three minutes or so. pulled the skillet and put the meat on a cutting board to rest for about 5-min, then sliced thin, plated over the mashed potatoes and sliced fennel bulb and garnished with some fresh thyme.

inform yourself

i cook with friends and these are some pictures of some of the projects/dishes/meals/etc. that i have made since january 2008. sometimes other people take the pictures and sometimes other people make the food, usually noted. if you would like more information on any of the food, please feel free to contact me (or drop a comment). i'm not looking for fame or to be recognized as a chef/cook, i have no formal training in the culinary arts and i don't claim to know what i am doing, this is simply a hobby of mine and this blog is a more linear way for my friends and family to view some interesting creations. enjoy!

[edit: i also have a different style column over on selectism. check it out.]

about me

take notice

all of the content on this website is exclusive to Lickmybalsamic.com, and should not be reproduced in any form with out the expressed written consent of the owner. some recipes are adapted from noted sources. photographs and text are the property of lickmybalsamic.com.